THe Twenty-Four Piece Puzzle

At a church rummage sale I found some 24 piece puzzles for ages 3-6. I didn't really think my daughter was ready for them, but I got one to try it out. She loved it so much I went back and bought 3 more. They are challenging for her, but not overwhelming if I guide her through it, and she loves the accomplishment of having actually made the picture. On her Winnie the Poo puzzle, I have her gather all the pieces of Poo, and we locate the eyes, the nose, the feet, etc., and I say, "Does the foot go above the face or below the face?" and things like that to guide her to the right spot for the piece. If I know it is the right piece put she isn't putting it in the space the right way, I suggest she rotate it and show her how the pictures go together one way and not any other way. Then we do Tigger, Piglet, etc., and in the end they all fit together! I think this is really good for her developing a sense of parts/whole and spacial intelligence, but more importantly this is one of the better tools I have been able to find for building the mental capacity for creating visual art. To draw an original picture that you haven't seen or been taught to draw, you have to have the mental capacity to "see" something that isn't there on the page clearly enough to put it on the paper. I've scratched my head over how to teach this, if teaching it is even possible. But to work the puzzle, she is having to "see" what is missing and at what angles, etc. I think that is a good step.

Counting Puzzles

I found a really cool counting puzzle at a church rummage sale. For the number one, it has the number on one puzzle piece, a picture of one kite on another puzzle piece, and the number one spelled out on a third, each of these pieces fitting together. Then a piece with the number 2, a piece with 2 butterflies or something, and the number two spelled out. The puzzle is set up so that the picture of 6 cats only fits with the puzzles pieces "6" and "six." It goes from numbers 1-20. I was really surprised when we got it out and my daughter actually counted 20 items almost perfectly. She LOVES putting the puzzles together. And then we put them in order 1-20, which is another challenge altogether.

Writing Letters

We are continuing to make progress with writing. I make little worksheets for her and we do them together. I draw purples lines on a plain white sheet of paper and then make dotted letters on the lines for her to trace with a soft yellow maker (so when she uses a pen the dots are not so prominently visible). I'm doing the letters in groups. For example, yesterday we did K, P, R, and D. I showed her how the R is a P at the top and a K at the bottom, so once she had mastered motions of the K and P the R was no problem. And the D is just like the P only with a bigger semicircle on the side. Next we are going to do E, F, and L. The F is an E without the bottom line, and an L is an E with only the bottom line, and so once she can do the E she can do any of these letters! She likes to take turns with me on the worksheets - I do a letter, then she does a letter, then me, then her, etc., etc. She is so proud of her work when she is done. She treats it like a special piece of art. I am, of course, super proud of her, too.

Emotional intelligence

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Stencils

We found another fun way to work on writing letters.  A friend of mine who is really into crafts just got a stencil maker, and she gave me her old stencil letter book.  It has lots of fonts, and my daughter has had a ton of fun making letters with it.

Writing letters

I finally stumbled across a method for teaching my almost 3 year old to write letters.  She's been trying for months and months, and so the will is there, but it has been difficult to actually form the letters well.  She just recently got the concept of "connect the dots," and I remembered those old workbooks from when I was in kindergarten in which they would have you trace the letter a few times and then make it on your own. So I made a connect the dots letter P with paint.  Something about using the paint and paint brush suddenly made it accessible.  It became a game.  I would make dots on the page in the order of a letter, describing the motions she would need to do to trace it (e.g., for a D - "line straight down, and a semi-circle to the side") and she would trace it.  We'd do it over and over.  She loves this game.   After doing this for awhile with paint, we moved onto pen and paper, with smaller letters.  Now she still can't construct a letter on her own, but she can trace the ones we have practiced perfectly.  And she thinks it is fun!

Glue Art

My almost 3 year old is super into glue, but I'm not a big fan of letting her use it.  So we came up with a compromise that lets her enjoy practicing her Elmer glue skills without making a mess.  We begin by dabbing little spots of glue all over a sheet of paper.  I help her, and if too much glue gets in a spot or two it is not a big deal.  Then I start cutting out little shapes from construction paper - circles, squares, triangles - in various colors.  Once I have cut one shape out (it takes 2 seconds, she takes the shape and puts it on one of the spots of glue.  I can cut shapes faster than she can decide where to put them on the paper, and so we are both occupied through this process.  She LOVES doing this.  We have made little shape art presents for a lady in a nursing home, as a present for Grandma's birthday, and some for ourselves, as well.  It is easy, inexpensive, and satisfies her desire to explore working with glue.